1977 jose cruz

slight cropping difference - both side-to-side and up-down? check.  differently placed facsimile autograph? check.  well then, we have ourselves another typical double variation from the 1977 o-pee-chee set.  here is jose cruz's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

cruz hit .299 with a career high 17 home runs in 1977, and it seems to me all of those homers came against the dodgers.  in reality, only three of them were hit against the dodgers, but cruz always seemed to do well when the astros were facing my favorite team.  and it wasn't just my young imagination, either - cruz hit .472 with a 1.325 ops in 15 games against the dodgers in 1977.  he also had a walk-off sacrifice fly off of the dodgers' charlie hough in a late september game that year.

voici à vous, 1977 jose cruz!